System Mastery

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/system-mastery-181-warhammer-fantasy-roleplaying-1st-edition.mp3 Small but vicious dog, right?  You remember that?  It’s that joke that’s in here?  Anyhow hi there, how ya doin’?  Wanna talk about a 1989 game that seems like it mysteriously sat unread on a shelf since 1977?  WHFRP 1st edition can do that!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit m...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/things-we-hate-about-dd-part-2.mp3 Hey whoops this was only ever free on our Patreon.  Should be here too.  Now it is.  Hooray!  The balance is complete and finally I can diminish, and go into the West. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/08/system-mastery-180-robotech.mp3 Yeah, we needed a break again.  Jesus, Wraeththu.  So for now, let’s dive into dependable old Palladium.  Two scoops of whoops in every book!  Robotech is one of the early Palladium license titles, which is always a source of hilarious conflict and tone problems in every try, and here we find it, surprisingly fast. ...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/system-mastery-179-wraeththu-from-enchantment-to-fulfillment.mp3 Okay, guess break time’s over!  This book is enormous, weird, and in a lot of ways, misguided.  The world has collapsed, humanity has fallen, and the Wraeththu have risen in their place.  And what are the Wraeththu?  Androgynous hermaphroditic semi-vampiric aruna-having yaoi people, d...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/system-mastery-178-the-land-of-ogg.mp3 We needed a break to finish our second book, and when you live in a gig economy that just means doing a smaller job that week!  The Land of Ogg started around 1993 and is a game about dumb cavemen failing at everything.  Here is an obligatory joke about the current federal government.  Please enjoy.   Learn mo...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/07/things-we-hate-about-dd-part-3.mp3 No really, they’re the worst.  Play another game.  Also while we’ve got that picture of Radcliffe up there, our opinion is that JK Rowling is a TERF piece of shit, so.  Everyone sucks.  Just sucks.  Sorry about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/system-mastery-177-senzar.mp3 With 26 races, nearly 40 classes, giant complex martial arts systems and a battle world that has run amok for aeons aesthetic, where could SenZar possibly go wrong?  It’s an excess of boring riches on today’s System Mastery.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/system-mastery-176-high-strung.mp3 Grab your amps and start planning setlists, as we take a look at a game that eschews the classics of dungeon diving in favor of trying to make it big in the music world.  Does it deliver hot licks?  Or… I am bad at music, I guess cold licks?  Yes, does it deliver cold licks?  Well, come find out!   Learn more abou...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/06/system-mastery-175-call-of-cthulhu.mp3 Yes, it’s not a D&D game. Don’t worry. It’s going to be okay. We still found a classic, the Chaosium flagship and the biggest name in leaning heavily on public domain stuff Call of Cthulhu.  And hey, you might just be in need right now of people dumping on the febrile racism of a cowardly germophobe (Lovecraft...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/system-mastery-174-alma-mater.mp3 We’ve posted so many episodes at this point that the only reason this one’s description isn’t just “Fuck this game” is that I’m not sure I didn’t do that for a previous odious heap.  This game was banned from GenCon in the 80s because it’s got a bunch of teen sex in it.  That’s one of the reasons it’s bad.  Sure. ...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/system-mastery-special-things-we-hate-about-dd-part-1.mp3 So hey, remember when we wrote that book?  Jef apparently didn’t because this special content powered by pre-orders has been sitting unedited on an external HD for months.  The only thing that could force him to remember was the diligent reminders from listeners couple with the completion of...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/system-mastery-173-smallville.mp3 It was about time we discussed the Cortex engine, and what better way to have a discussion than driving 45 minutes to a Kansas farm so I can say one sentence about how I’m upset and then drive away again to reset before I do it two more times next episode?  Smallville is a game all about building out a whole season...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/system-mastery-172-darwins-world-1.mp3 It’s post-apocalypse OGL gaming here so it may seem like something we’ve done before, but is it?  I hope not, but honestly 171 is a lot of episodes to go back through and I think we’re all a little tired right now.  It’s mutants, running around an irradiated post-war Earth, and they call women “furniture” in i...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/system-mastery-171-tunnels-trolls-1.mp3 The year is 1975.  The hair is stupid.  The clothes are stupid.  The music?  Mostly stupid.  The movie scene was okay (Rocky Horror?  Jaws?  Come on now).  And the RPG scene was… heartbreakers already!  Tunnels and Trolls sure was an attempt to fix D&D by doing things differently for once.  Let’s look back, s...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/system-mastery-170-dragonraid.mp3 Someone tweeted about this, someone else linked it to us, and now we’ve reviewed it.  The DragonRaid Adventure Learning System:  A Roleplaying Game for Courageous Christians.  It’s probably safest to just link to the review now.  Happy quarantine!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/system-mastery-169-rampant-live-action-roleplaying-1.mp3 Lightning bolt!  Lightning bolt!  Lightning b… you get the idea.  It’s a LARP game!  And for us, a weird one, since we’ve never actually encountered one before that just looks like local park dress up goodtimes with boffer weapons, and yet here we are!   Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/system-mastery-168-timeship.mp3 Timelord!  Would you like to play an RPG as yourself and then, you know, get rewarded for showing up to the table with weapons and German soldier uniforms and stuff?  Well here you go!  Timeship is a mad game from the early 80s where yeah, there’s not much in the way of stats, because you’re playing as yourself!  Wha...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/02/system-mastery-167-supplement-spectacular-2.mp3 A fun side effect of doing what we do is that listeners send us stuff.  All the time.  We have just tons of books.  Jef’s room is basically two used RPG bookstores with a hidden bed in it.  And we don’t just get core books.  Heaps of fascinating supplements arrive from time to time as well, like so ma...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/system-mastery-166-dream-park.mp3 This has been on Jon’s to-get list for most of the time we’ve made the show, and who should suddenly show up with a copy of the thing but our network head?  He always gets us the best stuff.  Dream Park has a PEDIGREE.  Based on a Larry Niven/Steven Barnes sci-fi novel series and written by Mike Pondsmith for Talso...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/system-mastery-165-toon.mp3 Time to tackle some more Steve Jackson stuff.  No GURPS still (somehow we still don’t have a copy) but I do have Toon so here we go!  Play as a cartoon character, do cartoon stuff, and honestly it’s not half bad! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/system-mastery-164-glyphs-part-2.mp3 This thing is huge and bizarre and we have come back to finish it because you are not prepared… for more Glyphs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/system-mastery-163-glyphs-part-1.mp3 Let’s finish off the year with something wild, what do you say?  How about a game that uses a flicked token carom style mechanic for all random resolution?  This thing is huge and bizarre and we will have to come back and finish it later because you are not prepared… for Glyphs. Learn more about your ad choices....

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/12/system-mastery-162-star-thugs.mp3 Time for some sci-fi!  This game takes all the futuristic space convention you love and just DUMPS on it, haha yeah rad, fuck Star Trek!  Anyhow come along won’t you?  On a journey that starts as a surprisingly innovative CCG-inspired spaceship combat simulator and somehow ends on some deeply misinformed understand...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/system-mastery-161-quest-of-the-ancients.mp3 Have you missed the good old fashioned heartbreaker game paradigm?  Well fret no longer friend, because this one has it all!  Elves! Dwarves!  Saracens for some reason!  This reprint of a game published in 1982 might just be the best sword and sorcery product of the 90s (according to the back cover) but...

https://systemmastery.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/system-mastery-160-godlike.mp3 Superheroes!  World War 2!  Greg Stolze?  What’s not to like?  Well, there’s plenty to like, such as the fascinating superpower design system and the fairly fun dice mechanics.  But could be there be more stuff coming we’re not fans of?  Well, the episode is huge, so you take a guess! Learn more about your ad choices....